True, if the weather holds, most of us will spend a lot of time outside, from daytime barbecues to nighttime fireworks. But sooner or later, you have to come back in — and when you do, the TV will be waiting.

So what to watch, beyond the regular fireworks specials on Friday? USA TODAY's Robert Bianco picks Five for the Fourth — a quintet that represent some of the best America has to offer, even if some of those offerings would shock the Founding Fathers to their core.

Independence Day | Encore, Friday, 8 ET/PT

If you want a historical salute to the holiday, TCM comes closest Friday with the musical 1776 (1:30 p.m. ET/10:30 a.m. PT). But if you want a spiritual salute, try this 1996 sci-fi adventure about the Earth (well, OK, us) defeating an alien invasion. Ignore the somewhat questionable science, and focus on what it says about our approach to a crisis: We may fumble a bit at first, but we eventually come together and make it work. It would have been nice if we'd come up with a plan before the aliens blew up the White House, but hey, nobody's perfect.

World Cup | ABC, Saturday, 11:30 a.m. ET/8:30 AM PT

This is the match we would have played had we won Tuesday. If you watch, even though we're no longer in the competition, give yourself a pat on the back for being a good sport, which is very American. And if you don't watch, give yourself a pat for reverting to our also very American tendency to ignore soccer unless we think we're about to win some big prize.

Movie Musical Marathon | TCM, Sunday, 6:15 a.m. ET/3:15 a.m. PT

What could be more culturally American than the musical, stage and screen? TCM has four of Hollywood's best, starting with Top Hat and Annie Get Your Gun (8 ET/5 PT), and ending with The Music Man (3:15 ET/12:15 PT) and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (6 ET/3 PT). In between, you get Elvis and Ann-Margret in Viva Las Vegas and Esther Williams in Dangerous When Wet — because really, what other country could build a wildly successful series of musical extravaganzas around a swimmer who could neither sing nor dance?

The Cosby Show | Sunday, TV Land, 4:30 ET/PT

There was a time when sitcoms with broad appeal dominated TV — none more so than The Cosby Show, a monument to diversity that's a testament to the universality of love and family. The result was the most popular sitcom of the past 50 years, and at the height of that popularity, it aired one of its most fondly discussed outings: This lovely episode built around the Huxtables' celebration of Cliff's parents' 49th anniversary. There's a lesson here, as well: expensive presents are lavished on the couple, but the one gift people remember comes free, a lip-synced version of Ray Charles' Night Time is the Right Time.

South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut | Sunday, Cinemax, 8:30 ET/PT

End the weekend (if you're an adult) with this profane, hilarious, whip-smart cartoon that spoofs most everything the other choices celebrate, from musicals and parental control to militarism and boisterous patriotism. Because the freedom and ability to laugh at ourselves has always been one of the best American values.